We’ve had some harsh words to say about Cristina Odone in the past, but this article on her Telegraph blog, responding to Kenneth Clarke’s offensive remarks about the veil, is pretty good.
Category Archives: Women
Tory minister describes veil-wearing women as being ‘in a kind of bag’
The man who thinks the niqab is ‘a most peculiar costume for people to adopt in the 21st century’
Women should not be allowed to wear a veil while giving evidence in court, cabinet minister and former justice secretary Kenneth Clarke has said.
He insisted his comments “had no trace of Islamophobia” but said it was important for the court to be able to see a witness’s body language.
Ban the veil in courts, say barristers
Most barristers favour a ban on defendants wearing the full-face veil during the whole of a criminal trial, a new poll suggests.
Some 90 per cent were in favour of the veil, or niqab, being banned when a defendant gives evidence. The support for a ban comes in a poll by the Bar Council for The Times, to be released today at the annual Bar Conference.
Florida woman says man tried to run her off road because of headscarf
POINCIANA, Fla. — Florida deputies are working to track down a driver who tried to run a woman and her two young children off the road in broad daylight.
Rose, who only wanted to be identified by her first name, said the man tried to run her off the road in Poinciana, Fla., because of her hijab, a headscarf worn by Muslim women.
Lawyer challenges French veil ban, Cassandra Bélin’s trial postponed
Cassandra Bélin’s husband Michaël Khiri with her lawyer Philippe Bataille
A French lawyer has launched a new constitutional challenge to France’s burka ban as part of the defence of a woman whose arrest for wearing Islamic face-covering sparked riots in the French town of Trappes earlier this year. A court in Versailles postponed the trial of 20-year-old Cassandra Bélin until 11 December in order to consider her defence team’s claim the charges against her are unconstitutional.
Bélin, who was not present at the opening day of the trial, was facing trial for defying the ban and insulting a police officer. She denies police claims that she told them, “Allah will exterminate you!” The defence has requested a special procedure by which the country’s Constitutional Council would review a law that has already passed.
‘Feminists’ march in support of hijab ban
Protesters marched through the streets of Montreal Saturday with a message: Quebec’s proposed charter of values would help protect women’s rights. The crowd estimated in the thousands argued the charter would help end religious oppression and ensure equality between men and women.
Muslims real target of charter, law prof. says
MONTREAL — Muslims are the real target of the proposed charter of Quebec values, while kippot and turbans are “collateral damage” in the provincial government’s plan to eliminate religious symbols from the public service, a McGill University law professor says.
Speaking Oct. 20 at a panel discussion on the issue at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, Daniel Weinstock said Islamophobia is “the elephant in the room” in the push to secularize Quebec.
“We are not at the centre [of this debate], but as Jews, according to our ethical tradition, we have to stand up resolutely for our Muslim brothers and sisters,” Weinstock said, receiving widespread applause.
New Zealand: Woman fined for abuse of Muslim student wearing veil
A foreign student had nightmares after a shopper in a Dunedin supermarket told her to either take off her burqa or leave New Zealand.
Farm worker Yuet Rappard appeared before justices of the peace in the Dunedin District Court yesterday and was found guilty of offensive behaviour and fined $500 for telling a student to remove her burqa on May 17.
Rappard, representing herself, did not dispute that she told a University of Otago student to take off her burqa at Gardens New World, but told the court she was expressing her freedom of speech. “I said, ‘Shame on you, you should take it off. When in Rome you should do as the Romans do’.”
Rappard, who moved to New Zealand from the Netherlands when she was a child, believed burqas should be banned and felt “intimidated” when she saw people wearing them.
The student, whose identity was suppressed, said being shouted at, first when she was at the checkout and then a few minutes later outside the supermarket, left her shaken. “I was crying and shocked. I just felt lonely and scared,” she told the court. She had since had nightmares and the incident had affected her studies.
Newcastle nurse attacked while wearing Muslim headscarf
A Muslim nurse has spoken out after a religiously-motivated attack in the grounds of the Freeman Hospital. The incident happened in May 2013, just two days after the murder of drummer Lee Rigby, but Khadija Mohamed, 22, has now chosen to speak out.
She said: “I felt a tug on the back of my scarf and noticed I was on the floor. A middle aged man was standing over me saying ‘You’re one of them, you’re one of them,’ really aggressively.”
EDL debates niqab
This week Channel 4 is broadcasting a series of reports on the niqab in the UK. The EDL has flagged this up for its supporters. Here are some their thoughts on the subject.